Shadow

Shadow

The Shadows are an ancient race, one of the First Ones. A race that is billions of years old. Known as the "Shadows" by the younger races, their actual name in unpronounceable to them, being over 10,000 letters long. It's a race whose form is that of an insectoid hexaped, a cross between a praying mantis and a spider. With seven pairs of pinpoint eyes on their small triangular head. They can cloak themselves from most of the visible wavelengths but can sometimes appear as figures of static in the infrared spectrum's upper end.

Shadows embrace chaos, seeing it as the universe's supreme force. They believe that a race cannot reach its full potential if it is not tested through conflict and war, pain and struggle. Therefore through their manipulations they bring about the aforementioned,, to force evolution forward. The end result being that strong races become stronger and the weak race die off. The Shadows follow the First Principles: chaos through warfare; evolution through bloodshed; perfection through victory.

The Shadows are masters of organic technology, using it everywhere. Possessing great ships that resemble black spiders knonw as Shadow Vessels. Which use living sentient beings as their central processing unit. Ships with the ability to phase in and out of hyperspace, unlike the other races which need to form a jump point or use a jumpgate. With beam weapons that are vastly more powerful than those of the younger races, can fire jump point destabilizers, and launch swarms of shadow fighters. The Shadows have planet killers, called the "Death Cloud". It's a colossal movable latticework structure that is surrounded by a vast cloud of nanites. Which surrounds a world and launches burrowing multi-megaton missiles which tear apart the world from the inside.

Serving the Shadows are a number of servitor races. Whom have pledged their service to the Shadows. They have been given access to Shadow technology and lived / worked right alongside the Shadows, including on their homeworld. Whenever the Shadows slept between the wars, their servitor races continued the work of the Shadows throughout the galaxy. Manipulating races, carrying out experiments, and preparing the way for the eventual return of the Shadows.